There's a cold, wet sensation around my feet. I wiggle my toes, feeling the numbness from seconds before ease as I dare to push down. Is that sand? I jolted suddenly, sucking in air, sand and hair as if I had never breathed before and it felt that way as I'm instantly up - coughing. I push back my hair, no longer tied back but in a big knotty, wet mess that clings to my face and neck in protest of being left neglected.

The second I go to rub the sand and dirt from my face I stop as it's pointless thanks to how wet and covered I am, but why am I wet?

I went for a swim.

"This isn't Kansas anymore, Toto." Maiden squats down next to me. "You're really in deep shit now."

"Give her a moment," Crone softly soothes, and I'm so gently guided to my feet by invisible hands. "Think Elise."

Right.

That's me.

"I'm Elise." I start coughing again, hunching over like I might vomit as my throat burns and my mouth is dry.

"Get her some water." Crone snaps.

Maiden groans. "From where?"

I stare at my reflection, not sure who is staring back at me. I look like them. Maiden. Crone. I know them. I am them.

Something moves in the water, a thin, curvy fish, maybe, swims through my reflection and I instinctively step back from the water. The outline of my body where I had just laid remains imprinted in the sand, and looking over the vast expanse of water before me I know danger lurks beneath the surface, and I do not want to face whatever is in there. But how do I know?

I start coughing again, stumbling backwards as I trip on the wet hem of the dress that has gathered. Crone doesn't move fast enough to stop me and Maiden laughs briefly as she quickly turns away, covering her mouth with her hand.

I know this place.

Something is missing.

This time I do vomit. Sticky, yellow liquid that only makes my mouth feel worse and my body heaves more as it comes out while Crone attempts to comfort me. She offers me a cup and I take it, spitting out the water, once, twice, before finally taking a drink.

I'm so thirsty.

I don't get to enjoy the water or its relief for long. There's a splash that stops us all, and we move further back again. This time the length of the dress is held up, but it feels heavy in my hands. My legs tingle, itch, and ache, with each step as I feel my body waking up. We get over the sand dunes and flat ground where it gets easier.

"How did we get here?" I manage to ask, my throat still not working as it should and as I drop the dress; there's something about the fabric, no, the style, that I know I've seen, maybe even worn before only I can't quite remember.

"We? How did you get here?" Maiden rolls her eyes as we all keep looking at the ocean, or is it a lake?

Crone takes over. "How about you fix yourself up? Don't let them see you looking well, like this. And definitely don't let yourself get the point you can't come back from. You don't let them see how beaten you are or how tired or just how close they could have come to stopping you. Do better."

I've been told this before and know he's right. She's right. I look down, seeing the rips and tears, brownish red stains on the white, and the dirt from a moment, a past I can't quite remember. Somewhere in the back of my mind I hear screaming; I feel the screams that my throat is still bearing the scars of. It's a Grecian style of dress, and I could practically envision it new. A soft, lightweight, flowing silk dress, pulled and tied in at the waist and gathered up over my left shoulder exposing my right.

It takes me a moment to appreciate what I now wore, the wet, ruined disaster gone and in its place I felt more like royalty. I touched my hair, dried, and half pulled back with soft curls tickling my back and in the middle of my chest, the golden pendant remained. I look at it closer now, my fingernails clean and skin no longer purple with bruising. There's a weight on my head as I reach up again to find - a crown?

I turn around to look at my companions but find them gone, yet there is a figure that looms before me which makes my stomach drop. My body moves of its own will, one hand onto my stomach, another over my mouth as it threatens to throw up again while a cold fear spreads up from my toes, sinking deep into my bones where it remains, as if there is nowhere else for it to go.

It was a large, white, creepily dead tree.

I nearly crumbled as everything became clear. Reality has found me in a crushing wave as my memories, and more came flooding back into my head. I stumbled down the last few steps of the path and fell before the tree as if in worship.

Maybe I would beg for its mercy.

Would it matter?

Where I was finally sunk in and if I wasn't already down I would have fallen then. I was back in the Crossroads, at the bad vibes tree where-

I gasped, sobbed and I don't even know what, as my both hands felt my stomach.

My flat stomach.

Pushing down in desperation, icy panic surged through me. The numbness I had only just shaken off, returned in a whole new way leaving me feeling more like a prisoner in my body than the one in control of it. I ripped at the dress, baring more than my body but my soul to this broken world as only a hollow flatness now remained where there had once been life. It had been him. My baby. My son.

Gone.

The pain hit me, sudden and vast. I let it consume me. I felt my chest tighten, crack and break, as I wanted to disappear into the nothingness that now remained there. My heart pounded faster, wilder as it fought for life, as what air got into my body didn't stay, it wasn't enough to keep it going. Black spots clouded my vision, yet I didn't need to see, I could only feel and it was too much.

There is no hiding how close they had come to breaking me, Cain. They did it. They won.

Our baby.

Our son.

Gone.

Cain.

I reached out, wanting him but instead the biting roughness of the tree bark grazed at my fingertips. I dug in, ripping at the hollowed trunk as I wanted to tear into myself. The Warlock once wanted to see what was inside, and now I knew.

There was nothing.

I was nothing.

I punched, ripped at and screamed at that stupid, fucking tree. The one that featured in my nightmares where I'd need to birth in it as Leto had. Regret at my pride, at my selfishness, at my seemingly endless ability to self-destruct replaced the panic, and my fear. I was angry, at the world, at these so-called gods, and most of all at me. I should have stayed in the Underworld, made Hecates cabin a home. Apollo knew all along. He was right, this whole time he was right. I should have taken refuge with Medusa. I should have just stayed here.

"You are not going to be forced into hiding, alone and hunted by your enemies." Cain whispered, but I couldn't keep going. I couldn't move as the panic of that very thing happening shut down my brain. "Elle, you and our son will be safe, looked after, and there will be nothing to fear, I promise."

"You can't promise that." I manage to say, leaning into him.

"I can." He sounds so sure, I want to believe him.

He lied.

I failed.

The splintering edges of the tree cut into my back, and I sank into the pain. The ground around me was covered with fragments of wood, but no matter how I tried, the tree remained standing. The marks I left barely visible except the bright red smears in this dark and endless realm of pain and death.

Death.

"Wait," My voice was like gravel as realisation dawned on me.

And then I started to laugh.

And cry.

Uranus and falling. Matt's vision. The harder I laughed, the bigger the sobs became that broke in between each breath. I felt dizzy, elated and defeated. My heart twisted painfully as I wrapped my arms around my stomach, still not used to the lack of Blueberry being there with me yet able to now find comfort in that. I could hear the hysterical laughing, each cry that mingled within it that was coming so freely out of my mouth I wasn't sure I could stop it even if I wanted to. My eyes ached, my face wet with tears, sweat and blood as I sat there rocking at the base of the tree.

I didn't notice them at first; a scorpion, or three. The snakes looped through the branches above. The rabbits that scattered with each sudden outburst that left me as it all made sense now. Foxes and hounds slowly draw in closer.

This was the Crossroads.

A place where the worlds divided and the realms parted.

I looked down at the pendant that still managed to hang around my neck and ripped it off, seeing the ashy fire pit in my hands as my vision blurred before the past and present. This is where it came from, a gift from Hecate when I needed one; a key to grant me access one more time.

"Fuck. You. All." I threw it as far as I could, beyond the beach and into the water only to have it back around my neck. "Fuck."

This time the laugh died as it left my body and only the sobbing continued now. New possibilities and options ran through my mind as visions came through. I didn't want to see or knew how to stop it until I saw Hecate leaving the Underworld which made everything pause.

Why am I here and not in the Underworld?

Where is my white room and dear old Alistair Bunting guiding me to the light like the other times?

My thoughts run away from me again, as if they weren't thoughts at all, rather commands as I feel the tug of power within. The more aware of it I become the more intense it grows, until I don't even know if I'm in the Crossroads, or the Aether or anywhere at all and just when the ringing in my ears builds up a tension inside of my body that makes me think I will actually explode, it stops.

"So, Portia and Adala are alive in the Crossroads?" I speak slowly, trying to keep up with another turn of events.

"They're dead." Hades sips his drink. "Ish."

"Deadish? Now that's a technical term I'm sure you worked hard at."

"I try," He shrugs.

The vision is clear. No, the memory of me trying to make sense of what had happened to the former Fates. Portia's death had hit me harder than I had expected or would be perhaps willing to admit to her but I couldn't stop, I couldn't get out of this place I'd fallen into. It was like Deimos power took steroids on a cosmic level because I'd fallen deep into the maze of what could only be Past, Present and Future. What fragments actually remained of my mind were being chipped away with each second and I almost felt something like empathy for Nieve.

"Help."

Did I say it or think it?

A pulsing ache from where I think my throat was may have been because I screamed. Someone was screaming.

Cain.

Hades.

They could be coming here. They would come here. Cain would find me. He always did, but would Hades know I was dead-ish?

Had I met the same fate as Adala and Portia and if so, if not, what did that even mean?

More screaming.

Mine.

"Calm yourself, my little Phoenix." It's a soft, familiar voice that breaks through the chaos and opening my eyes, the visions have gone.

There is no ocean, no monsters - at least not the kind even I knew not to fuck with. No tree, or hallucinations of myself to keep me company. Only, I had been here before too. I think.

Real.

Not real.

Did it even matter?

Hecate's cottage was once again thrumming with life. The plants seem to be blooming around us, all reaching for her as she sat above me, beside me; I sat up quickly causing them all to pull back as the scurrying of little paws on the wood floor followed.

I was on a bed of furs, so soft and comfortable I longed to lay back down and sink into them. The woman beside me bore resemblance to Hecate, but was also so very different to the last time we had been together. The urge to stare at her remained, just how her essence still managed to draw me in closer to her. I shouldn't be calm, I shouldn't listen to what she had to say but as she offered me the tea cup, I took it.

Her brown eyes still held an unwavering warmth of familiarity, pride and kindness, with her endless knowledge lingering beyond in the darkest depths. The more I stared, the more surreal being with her after everything that had happened became. The black, spirals of her hair were now streaked with grey and sections of white, as the colour seemed to be slipping away the further down her back it fell. She looked old, as if time had finally caught up with her which now only made me shiver.

"Tell me, did you forgive, Poseidon?" She asked, sipping her own tea.

I mimicked her actions. The tea was sweet, warm and filling; as something in the cup bumped my lip I looked in to see the pomegranate seeds floating on the surface. The longer I stared, they began to sink.

"Yes."

This made her smile. Wrinkles that hadn't been there before creased the skin around her mouth, dimples now appeared. An aura of peace and contentment radiated off her, and I felt it. Actually I felt - only her. I reached for my powers, for something, and came up empty. The weight of the pendant tugged against my neck and glancing down, the urge to take it off grew.

"It is to help you, not harm." She put a hand on my forehead, and for the tiniest of moments the chaos that was now my mind broke free. It was gone in a breath, but I understood. "I knew you would forgive him."

We sat there with our tea for a few more moments. I twisted around to look at her better, tucking my legs up underneath me, while keeping the blanket around my torso as I was mostly naked. I didn't have it in me to care right now and I knew that also wasn't my decision. If she wasn't doing whatever she was doing, I'd be feeling too much. My mind was clear, each thought coming and going with a clarity I hadn't felt in years, back when the world was less grey and a psychotic werewolf was my biggest problem. Yet the words still came, without a thought or realisation as the soft, tickling sensation of the fur against my legs seemed to claim my focus.

"Did. Is he, did the baby survive?" I ask her finally, swirling what remained of the red liquid in my cup.

"Do you not want to know if you survived?" Hecate asked instead, allowing the snake to slide up her arm.

"I think I'm dead-ish. That's enough."

"Deadish." She hummed, almost amused.

"Hades term." I shrugged.

"You must be rubbing off on him."

"And you. That's a good deflection if I ever used one."

"There is a baby." It's all she says, as she stands. "And what you are, well. That is yet to be decided."

Her power slips. Tears fall, as my body trembles with the sudden slip of emotion. It's too much, yet then she's there. Her powers tighten as they soothe me back into the moment; of tea, furs and a deep sense of safety. Warmth. Home.

Home isn't here.

Home is him. Strong arms and tender kisses along my jaw. It's being seen when I feel invisible, understood when I'm rambling. It's skin on skin in a hot shower, hands entwined and walks in the rain. It was a connection and pleasure and safety. The way he said my name, looked at me in the morning light, tasting whisky on his tongue and feeling his smile against my lips. Home was not a feeling Hecate could imitate. Her powers would not soothe and settle me how he could.

"You are not making this easy," Hecate paused my spiral and the steady, calming numbness grew around me. "Everything is happening for a reason."

"I'm tired of hearing that." My free hand presses against my stomach. It's flat, unmoving. Empty.

Closing my eyes, I see morning light filtering through the curtains. The rocking chair in the corner I never got to sit in. A baby wrapped in a blanket, I never got to hold. Maiden appears then, looking at the chair apparently bored, as she then inspects the room.

"This is what we want now?" She fails at hiding her disapproval.

"This. Home. Is what we've always wanted. You know that." Crone sits in my chair. "Even if you claim we want to party and live for only the good times. We drink to escape, we feel everything. We hurt. We want someone to love us. Just as we are."

"This is why we're in therapy."

I can't disagree with her, and hold the blanket cocoon as if it's my only chance to do so. To pretend. To have it all.

I wanted too much.

"Is this a key or another curse?" I ask, holding the pendant now, back with Hecate and leaving my dream behind.

"A shield." Hecate lets out a breath, and the strain in her voice is more than before. "You are not making this easy."

"My bad." I roll my eyes, but since when was any of this ever easy?

"Trust that all will be revealed as it needs to be."

"Even now?" My temper flared, and touching the pendant, I considered pulling it off.

"That is helping me, help you, manage the power you currently possess. If you'd been released to the Underworld in this state, Uranus stands a chance to claim what he wants, and there will likely not be an Underworld. You made waves in Tartarus, there you'd be a tsunami. You already crushed one realm. I do not even want to consider what would happen if something like that happened there."

My mood wavers, and I feel the numbness creeping back in. "You planned all of it, every detail."

"I had to do as best that I could, and it is but one of many burdens I carry. There is also freewill, which is a major inconvenience to everything the majority of the time. I have only done what has been needed, and then hoped for the best"

"What is needed. That's all you seem to do and demand of everyone else, demand of me!" Hecate appeared to hesitate as her mouth parted, yet she didn't answer. "Has it all been worth it then?"

The schemes, planning, lies and secrets. Breadcrumbs left scattered through the centuries and for what? Uranus would fall, I knew he would but yet again I only felt the cost of this on my own life and the price I had been forced to pay. My anger brewed again, simmering under my skin, turning the tea in my stomach into poison. She could act as this wise, all knowing being, above all of us but the toll of these choices were seen clearly all over her ageing appearance that once seemed eternal and unbreakable. No wonder she had disappeared.

Something unreadable passed across her face before she took a slow breath. "That is not a question with a simple answer. My demands may be high, but it is worth it for what is at stake."

Hecate's eyes narrowed slightly, the weight of countless centuries pressing between us. It was then I realised how much I had truly believed in her, despite the warnings, Kara's warnings; the sense of betrayal I felt now as my powers fought again against something greater left me wanting retribution for all of it. Not just for me, but for all stuck in this web that she had created.

"You see only the edges of a tapestry woven in blood and sacrifice. I was there when the first threads were laid, and I will be there when it all falls apart." Hecate's voice was sharp as she stepped closer, bearing down her power as I refused to bend further to her will. "As will you."

"No." But, would I?

She laughed. "That is not your choice to make."

"And why do you think it's yours?" I growled, unable to stop myself. "What is the end game here? This Reckoning is for what purpose other than for you and these, gods, these firsts to just-"

"To give you a chance at a future, Elise. One where choice and freedom is finally yours. That's all I ever wanted. The Reckoning is so the past and its mistakes will be faced, and avenged." Hecate folded and I never got to claim victory as her words seemed to hit me with more force than her power. "You may be young, little Phoenix, but that is only your vessel and this human experience you have found yourself within this life. There was a time when we were all once free. We were the firsts of their creations. Designed to be something magnificent. It was a time before you will ever see, or will ever remember. As I do. Gaia blessed and cursed me, when she saved me. Free will comes with a price," her voice drops to a whisper. "You are not the only one being made to pay."

She was wrong. Her pain was my pain as I stood with her on a blood soaked field. There was nowhere to hide; Uranus was fast and swift as often as he was slow and torturous in his quest to remove their creations completely. But it wasn't just the once, no. It happened again and again. Different times and places. Different ideas and visions. Each time, he destroyed it all. Gaia never helped. No one ever helped, they just demanded she fix it. Let it be her war to fight. Hecate's chosen ones never lasted, and seeing myself fall in that field was just another failure to add to her collection.

He had never gotten this far before.

Neither had she.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, daring to touch her hand. "How many times have you played this game, Hecate?"

"More than I should have."

"Why?"

"Because, dear Phoenix. I saw you rise. I had to keep going, so there could be you."

"You can't ask this of me." I shake my head, shifting back and away from her.

"I'm not asking." Her gaze hardened. "If you stop now, he will win. Think about that. Think about your realm, your home, your family. If that town pained you so deeply, imagine worlds, entire realms obliterated. I am not asking. I am telling you."

I closed my eyes, instantly greeted by the Maiden and Crone. We all stared at each other in silence, as there was no need to go back to that day, or to look ahead to see the future she spoke of. We were literally at a Crossroads.

"I tried." I whisper.

"Then try again." Maiden shrugged.

"What if she's wrong? We've done this so many times already and this life we have is nothing compared to hers."

"Then we'll try again. It's what we do, just like her." Crone stepped back, fading into darkness. The Maiden joined her.

"I can't like this. I may have more power, but I have never been weaker." I admit, looking back to Hecate.

She smiled a sad smile, her eyes settling on the pendant. "Not weak. All of that power was never intended for one. It is why there have always been-"

"Three. I know. But, Portia and Adala are gone. Nieve is gone. I don't-"

Hecate continues, "four."

I freeze. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"There have always been four." She's enjoying this way too much.

"No fucking way."

"Three may be a magic number, but four is power. Four is what binds the intangible to reality. It represents wholeness, universality." Hecate's eyes gleamed with a smug, knowing look, like she had waited centuries for this moment. "The power sought you out, Elise, because you were familiar. Once a Third, your place within all of this was already determined. When Nieve was erased, the power needed a new vessel, and yours was all it had known before. Only now it is whole, not broken apart to ease the burden it brings."

My breath caught with a sharp sting of realisation. "So, what now? I gave up being the Third. That nearly broke me, again, but Cain did it, and Apollo was there and well, I know you could do that power exchange thing too. So, I guess that's your plan. Just, take the power, redistribute it to your shiny new—" I stopped mid-sentence, the pieces clicking into place with a shudder. "Portia. Adala. You took them."

Because she knew.

She had known this entire time.

Dead-ish.

I clenched my fists, the Crossroads surrounding me with all that it was and wasn't. Hecate frowned, her own presence getting more intense as she sought to calm me. Whispered words shuffled around my head, never quite caught by my ears as millions of secrets, plots and ideas were shared from all that ever was or came to be within this space between the realms. Despite this, it all started to make sense, except for one major question. She had her Maiden and Mother roles, but where was the Crone?

"Who completes the square, Hecate?" I demanded, not sure I wanted her answer. "I knew it, I knew it all long. I solved your fucking riddles and knew there had been four. So who is it?"

Slowly she rose to her feet. The whispers silenced as the cabin seemed to hold its breath. Maybe it was just me as my head was fuzzy with what this all meant.

"For now, I will stand in the place of the Crone."

Her words didn't shock me how they should have. "And the Fourth?"

"Will be revealed in time."

The teacup smashed as I dropped it, the red liquid like blood as it splattered over the worn, old floorboards. Instantly chaos erupted around us, my rage coming out in force as the cabin threatened to fall apart. Tears blurred my vision as I set my sights onto her, unable to reign it in as more waiting, riddles and secrets filled the space between us. Even now, she still just couldn't tell me and the more she tried to calm me, the angrier I became.

"Now. It will be revealed now."

"And, then what will happen next, Elise?" Hecate yelled back.

The cabin creaked and groaned; wood splintered and glass broke, sparkling through the air as a tornado swirled around us. I would not be stopped, not this time. A wall broke away as I felt Hecate try, and try again to find a way to shut this down. Her pendant burned with her effort against my skin but it only powered me on. The plants were next, the roof vanishing as the concept of taking away what was hers lingered in the back of my mind. I wanted answers, I demanded answers.

No more riddles.

No more games.

I felt the ache of loss, mine or hers - I wasn't sure, and taking a step forward, I paused as something hard, dug into my heel. Glancing down, chess pieces were littered across the floor with the broken teacup and then it all disappeared, the cabin more a smaller shed. Hecate vanished as in front of me now Cain and Portia faced each other; the game board flipped with black and white markers all over the floor.

"What do you think will happen next, old friend?" Portia opened her hands, rubbing them on her thighs as circulation returned. "Do you think she actually loves you? That she saved you out of the goodness of her heart? It was for her own personal gain. None of this was for you. Wake up, Cain. You've always been blind when she is involved!"

"I guess we have that in common." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and his head on his hand. "Thing is, I can now see this bothers you more than it has ever bothered me."

His casual disregard of her concerns only enraged her further yet her anger vanished as he stood, the look in his eyes turning deadly. The cool sea breeze that had chilled them earlier vanished, and the old shack they were in seemed suddenly twice as small. Refusing to be intimidated she matched him front on, returning the look with one of her own.

"Why are you here, Portia?" He demanded. "Enough with the games. The vision has passed. Let it rest, or perhaps your disappointment at my survival tells me even more about your true intentions?"

"I am not your Oracle anymore, Cain. I am the Third!" She poked him in the chest, hard. "Remember that when you speak to me with such disrespect."

"You are only where you are because of her, do not forget that or the fact there have not always been three. If you think I don't know when you're up to something, you're gravely mistaken."

"Are you threatening me?"

"That depends." He shrugged. "Why are you really here?"

Why am I really here?

Portia turned from him now, as clear to me as if she was actually here. The ache from losing her had new tears streaming down my face and as her arms surrounded me, everything went quiet.

"Portia?" I breathed her name as I held her back. She felt real. Alive.

Slowly we parted, the house was ruined around us as she stepped back, to stand beside Hecate. My hands, not my whole body, were shaking as I took her in, not helped as Adala joined them.

I couldn't speak, my throat was dry as I tried to talk, my tongue too big for my mouth as the words couldn't form.

"You're actually here?" I finally croaked.

Portia smiled, her face soft and gentle reminding me of the serenity her body had possessed with her death. "Yes, sweet child. We were brought here, as you were. Hecate was able to reunite us with our mortal vessels."

Mortal vessels.

Body.

I looked down to inspect myself. I bled. I held power. I felt. "So, what am I?"

"You are right on time." Adala smiled. "It is to be."

My eye twitched, my rage instantly back. "You both died. Zane-"

"Ensured we are at the right place, at the right time." Portia confirmed.

"Here. You needed the vision, you needed me to die. To come here."

"Dearest, do not try to understand. Do not try to see or explain. Surrender to the universe and know that it is all happening as it needs to." Her words soothed, like a bandaid over a bullet hole, the second of relief gone as I threatened to bleed out. "But yes, we needed you to come back here, just as you are."

I looked at Hecate, the three standing in alignment.

Maiden.

Mother.

Crone.

"You will take this power from me." It was what Uranus wanted.

"And divide it back into three." Hecate confirmed. It would give our side the advantage, the balance was tipping back into our favour.

"And the Fourth?"

"She isn't ready. Yet." Something unspoken lingered in the air as Hecate silenced herself. "It's time. We need to do this now."

"Now?" I don't know if they hear me as they're gone.

I'm gone.

"Elise, it's time. He wants to do it now." Portia ignored Aphrodite beside me, and I felt her fear.

"Portia, did you want this?"

"Of course." She answered quickly as Aphrodite snorted. She leaves us and I get up to take the Oracle's hands. "I'm just nervous. It will be fine."

"Cain will make sure we're okay." I promised her.

"No. He'll make sure you are okay." It came out harsher than I think she intended.

I started to scream as whatever Cain threw at me made contact, only through the bright white light of the pain that consumed me, it wasn't Cain standing there at all. Hecate faded, a merging of reality and the past as everything blurred as one.

It only got worse as I'm taken to a place, a world before mine existed and Inana stood with Cain, her eyes covered in a white light that hurt to look at before they vanished and I was back beside Portia, Apollo attempting to heal the parts of me that were being destroyed as I felt the power dig in, refusing to leave.

"How is he able to do this?" Nieve's words vanished as the rush of static filled the air, drowning out all other noise.

Pressure in my head made me want to crack it open, the pain only intensifying as whatever was being pumped into me sought to find release. A rush of visions came next, of things I'd never known, places I had never seen and people who only existed in the furthest reaches of a collective memory I felt Hecate trying to stop. I was back watching Inana and Cain; a lesson for the future neither could imagine.

It was later as Inana sat alone by the water, that the cloaked figure joined her.

"I did as you asked," Inana greeted her; voice soft with both pride and sadness. "He learned quickly, faster than I ever could." She smiled, though her eyes glistened with tears. "So it will be."

"Thank you, sister. Your future Thirds will forever be in your debt." The older woman opened her arms, hugging her tight. "Perhaps one day, you will meet them in a place that is safe from this realm, a haven. It is where the Wild Women run."

Inana failed at hiding her surprise. Even as a Third, she had only heard rumours and never had the ability to see it, even a glimpse, making her wonder if it even existed. Her soul, as fragile as a spider's web, longed for refuge far from what this existence had burdened her with.

She didn't belong here.

"To be taken into Hecate's realm would be a gift, only to speak truthfully to you now that is not what I want. I seek another life. I will be back to try again. I want to live a life that is to be my own, free of the burden this one carries, in a place away from these Gods and monsters, the games we all play. I want it to be new. Promise I can begin again on my own."

"You will have whatever you wish, for the cost of your services in this life, is one that cannot be repaid."

Inana smiled, having already seen the future she was not a part of and did not completely understand. She saw the victory coming, and that was enough for her. "Thank you."

I felt the threads of my power being cut away, piece by piece. What remained raged against the powers that invaded my body, seeking to reduce what was so familiar yet foreign within me. The scars I would be left with would forever alter whatever remained beyond my skin and bones, the shift was undeniable through the waves of pain that I didn't think would ever end.

Flashes of blue.

Holding hands with the Mother and Crone.

The power so raw, wild and untamed flowing not only through us but across the sky, within the earth, across the oceans and in the flames that now covered my body. I fell to my knees, the earth soft and forgiving as I hugged myself. The tears that fell disappeared within the heat that covered me, and air I so desperately needed never made it to my lips.

Gravity ceased to exist as we rose up and with a final tug I fell back to the ground while the trio above me returned to their former selves and became whole again. The Maiden pulled up the hood on her cloak, the Mother doing the same as the screams I wanted to release were stuck in my throat, suffocating me now as if I was underwater. It was the Crone that came closer, braving the flames that surrounded me as her eyes stared into mine yet I couldn't see. I could only feel her gaze as if it was a lingering touch.

Help me.

My hands dug into the dirt, each finger stiff and disjointed as I forced them in, and down. I needed to hold on. I needed to stay. Darkness called from somewhere behind me, the sound of a baby crying and fragmented glimpses of vision came back to me as excruciatingly painful as the crackled, charcoal remains of my body. It was too much. I needed Apollo, I needed him to heal as whatever I was here; a vessel, a spirit, a thing - nothing, wasn't able to handle this without him.

Fragments of last time filtered through in some distant part of my mind. I'd forgotten what the pain, the sensations of that power, a third of what was now being taken, had been like. This time there was no comfort, no one held me. The tingle of being healed, that glow and assurance it would be okay was not there. Was this death? Could I survive it without Apollo healing me, without Cain ensuring I would be okay.

I don't want to die alone.

I don't want to die like this.

Darkness called from somewhere behind me, the sound of a baby crying breaking through the darkness I sunk further and further into. The Aether called. Nothingness surrounded me as the pain stopped. Everything stopped yet the darkness began to take shape, a blur of colour and I knew the earth I had clung to a second ago was holding me back.

I'm not alone.

Was I dying?

In Hecate's hands, she held a bundle of white.

A tiny fist rose up, against her chest; the cries got louder. More intense. Desperate. Scared. Needing. My body refused to obey my orders to rise; to stand, to get the fuck up, right now, and the three stood just out reach inspecting the treasure in her arms.

"What a surprise!" Portia whispered, a pale finger reaching out to touch what she shouldn't.

"You said they would save it." Adala's hand settled across her own stomach.

"M-ine." It was barely a wheeze, but I said it. I heard it. I felt it.

The ground beneath my face was wet, the sand rough and clumping around my cheek as I lifted my head up. I couldn't feel my legs. I couldn't feel much else of me beyond the burning in my hands and how tight my skin felt across my face.

"How much do you want it, Elise?" Hecate asked, inching closer.

"M-ine." Anger burned within my chest, the pain different now as all I saw was what could have been. I wanted it all. I demanded it all. "Mine."

"Then rise, my little Phoenix."